


Status Quo

by misura



Category: The Magpie Ballads - Vale Aida
Genre: Awkward Kissing, Friends to Still Friends, Gen, How Do I Tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24964036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: Only Savonn, Hiraen thought, could make someone feel like they ought to apologize for his kissing them.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	Status Quo

When Savonn kissed him, slow and sweet, for a moment, Hiraen thought he might forget how to breathe, but then he realized that no, he hadn't forgotten; it was simply a matter of remembering to breathe through his nose, which he and everyone who didn't have a cold did most of the time anyway.

Savonn sighed, pulling away, before he smiled and crooned, "Darling, was that as good for you as it was for me?" His hands were still in the vicinity of Hiraen's shoulders, their bodies closely aligned.

Hiraen did not for a moment have the illusion that he might reach out and touch Savonn in return. Being who and what he was, he usually was afforded more privileges than most - but these were not ordinary circumstances.

"Yes, probably," he said, astonished to hear his own voice, calm and even, as if nothing of any significance whatsoever had happened.

Of course, from a certain point of view, that was true.

"If by 'good', you mean that it wasn't, particularly," he added. If he'd thought even for a moment that Savonn had enjoyed it, that Savonn wanted him that way, Hiraen knew he might have faked it - or tried to, anyway. He did not have Savonn's talents as an actor.

All things considered, he should probably thanks the gods that hadn't happened. Savonn might have been nice about it, possibly even kind, but Hiraen thought he might have died of embarrassment even so, and then who would have been left to watch over Savonn?

Who would have been there for Savonn to sacrifice himself for, and force himself to do things Savonn did not want to do, and drag Savonn down to earth when he'd much rather have flown away?

"A pity," Savonn said, finally pulling back all the way, restoring a semblance of normalcy to the scene. "It would have been convenient, don't you think?"

Hiraen snorted. Narrow escape from death-by-embarrassment or not, there were limits to how much nonsense he was willing to put up with, even from Savonn. "When have you ever done anything because it was convenient?"

"Now really," Savonn said, "that was uncalled for. I think it would be much fairer to ask when I have ever done anything for any other reason than because it was convenient."

"You kissed me!" Hiraen said. He hadn't meant to, he didn't think. He'd hoped to ignore it, to make it go away by pretending it hadn't happened.

"Yes." Savonn might have looked abashed. More likely, he was doing a good imitation. "Sorry about that."

"Don't - " Only Savonn, Hiraen thought, could make someone feel like they ought to apologize for his kissing them.

"I wanted - " Savonn's facial expression smoothly transitioned from 'abashed' to 'wistful'. If only Kedris hadn't forced him to become a soldier, he might have become one of the greatest actors the world had ever seen.

As things stood, that might still happen. It would just be that most of the world wouldn't be aware of it.

"I very much wanted for it to work," Savonn said.

_It's not you,_ Hiraen wanted to say. _It's me. I'm not -_ but he didn't actually know what he was, or wasn't, other than Savonn's best friend, the only person in the world Savonn had trusted enough to try this with. "Yes, well, it didn't," he said instead.

"I noticed." There was a hint of laughter in Savonn's gaze now.

"Sorry," Hiraen said, because he'd as soon get that over with.

"No need. There are others," Savonn said.

_Yes, and you left them - or Kedris made you leave them, back in Astorre,_ Hiraen thought. _And there was only ever one, and you almost never talk about him at all, which, knowing you as I do, means that you care about him a lot more than you want to admit, even to yourself._

Sometimes, loving Savonn was exhausting. In fact, it was that most of the time.

"You're very quiet," Savonn said. "Have I made you angry?"

_Often,_ Hiraen thought. With Kedris, with whomever Savonn had left behind in Astorre, with everyone who hadn't seen Kedris for what he was. "No," he said. "You'd need to do a lot worse for that."

Savonn grinned at him, cheerful and lecherous, and Hiraen surprised himself by laughing. "Willing if you are, darling. Though we might need to find a bed for that."

Hiraen groaned. "Sometimes I wonder why we're even friends. I honestly think I deserve better."

"Clearly, the gods disagree," Savonn said. "Or else perhaps they are of the opinion that you may, but I don't, and that's all there is to it. There. A plausible enough explanation, don't you think?"

Hiraen shook his head. "You'll find someone. I'm sure of it."

"When I bother to look, I usually do, though what this has to do with anything else we were talking about escapes me," Savonn said. "Well, then, now that it's settled we may not spend the next few hours indulging in carnal pleasures, whatever else shall we do to keep ourselves occupied?"


End file.
